Rate my startup: Zwapp, a unique social view of the App Store | Hacker News Reader

Rate my startup: Zwapp, a unique social view of the App Store

zwapp.com

44 pointsvanelsas21 comments

Thank you so much for only requesting the permissions you need when looking for friends via Facebook. I'm so frustrated by the number of apps that request permission to post just so I can find friends. (And I'll never grant that permission.)

Edit: Though it looks like you're asking permission to update Twitter, and that's making me hesitant.

We'll look into that, it shouldn't be like that. We will not actually post anything though.

There is only one point in the app where we ask (politely) if you are willing to tweet about Zwapp.

That is in the autoshare section of Settings. You remain in control at all times about posts. You can turn sharing to social networks on/off but everything defaults to off.

Nice idea. Apps are one niche it can be extended to other things utilizing social networks to get real time recommendations from friends.

Cool idea, but I wouldn't give you any money for this. How do you see this growing in to a startup?

Its a three month project that we did. The app is free and will remain free. It is born out of a frustration that finding apps is becoming more difficult and that browsing the App Store just isn't working. In real life, the first thing we do is compare apps on our phones, so why not do that on your phone too.

Might want to consider getting some app review people on board and feature their accounts as accounts to follow.

We have thought about things like that but to be honest, we want to keep the experience focussed on your friends. There are already enough top app lists around. What makes Zwapp different imo is that it gives you direct access to the apps and reviews of your friends instead of strangers.

I'm interested in what you've done to make money off of this? Is it via affiliate links?

We have affiliate links set up which will provide some revenue.

The site is still very clean, almost Instagr.am -ish, but we are also working on a web view where you can see and share each others app profiles (see http://www.zwapp.com/users/237 for a work in progress example).

How do you get the apps list on other people's phone

Just connect with your friends (using Facebook, Twitter, or your contact list) and you can then browse your friends apps. Zwapp detects apps automatically on your device with a few clever tricks.

Also the real-time feed shows you the apps your friends are downloading now, reviews, likes etc.

By Clever, do you mean a private API? I'd be interested in how if not!

we do two things: 1) We check on custom schemes (btw: watch that space as we will open source our work on that shortly!) 2) We check processes on iOS4 devices and match those as well.

The algorithm learns and will detect better and more with increased usage.

why not allow login directly using facebook or twitter account?

because not every user wants that, and tbh we're a bit unhappy with the reliability of both FB and Twitter.

The site is down!

Where are you accessing it from? Seems to work fine here, although we are getting a spike in traffic now

isn't iphone almost out of business? what about an android version?

We really want to do an Android version, it is a great platform too. We are working on Android already.

We want to strengthen our Android team so if you know any good Android devs they can contact us for a job!

I agree. You should definitely do an Android version. The Android Market could use a social interface too.

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